On becoming a teacher…

Someone asked me why I became a teacher and if I’ve always wanted to be a teacher.  I hadn’t really thought of this recently, but I definitely know the answer.  I have always wanted to be a teacher and have always known that God made me to be a teacher.  There was a brief stint in high school when I thought about becoming a lawyer because they are “clearly more successful than teachers,” but I quickly realized that would be completely against the plan God wanted me to be a part of.  If I had followed that path, I might have been successful academically, maybe even in my career, but I know I would have been miserable.  I started teaching Sunday School in a little Baptist church when I was in the 9th-grade and haven’t stopped since. 

I will say, however, that I have not always been sure of what level I wanted to teach.  Before I got my first teaching job I was sure I would only teach high school.  In the years immediately prior to my teaching career, I was working as a youth leader in a small church in which 90% of the students were middle school students.  You’d think I’d get the hint that God was preparing me for something, but I was set on my plan.  Then when I was looking for a job and God opened the doors for me to get a middle school position, I took it for fear of not finding another job.  Now, I know this is where God wanted me, and I love my job.  However, I’m becoming more and more sure that this is not where I am to be for the rest of my life.  Where will I go?  I’m not sure, and I may be wrong.  In the meantime, I’ll learn more about the GRE so that I can open more doors in the future.

The GRE

I took a diagnostic GRE test the other day.  Granted, I was listening to music and watching a movie while I took it, and my husband and puppy were in the room distracting me; however, my score was horrible.  Math was fine.  I probably won’t even really study that part.  Unfortunately, the “English” part went poorly.  What makes this extra sad is that I have a Master’s degree in English.  My professors would be ashamed of how low my score was…I am ashamed of how low my score was.  I didn’t even tell my husband what I scored until a few days later because it was so bad.  My vocabulary…blows big chunks.  I blame the 7th-graders for sucking all of the intelligent words right out of me!  Needless to say, I’ve made some flashcards and learned 13 new words while on the treadmill today.  My favorite new word:  skulduggery!  It is SO fun to say that word!  And I’m not sure there’s a better word for unscrupulous behavior . 

Teaching College English

Well, I taught my first class of college English tonight.  Here are some of my thoughts…

15 hours is too long to work in one day

I say “um” way too much.

I am MUCH more comfortable teaching 7th-grade math.

I don’t like hearing myself talk.

Evening college adults seem to be quite fun but rather needy.

I’m not quite sure how to explain a research paper.  It seems as though showing the students examples and talking about the assignment numerous times and giving numerous sample topics and ideas would do it, but I still think many of them were confused and I stayed for a good half hour afterward trying to adequately answer question after question.  I pretty much ended with:  Show me what you know how to do.  Then I’ll help you do what you don’t know what to do.  There are always re-writes.

I feel like the class went alright, but I definitely need more practice.  I didn’t really feel composed or with it, but I got through everything I wanted to.  I do think I need to work on how to explain a research paper.

 That’s all for now.  I’ve been up for 19 hours and need to get up again in 6 hours.

Working during vacation

I can’t help it.  I just enjoy working.  I stayed up the other night and wrote lesson plans for the rest of the year.  I know that several of them may be changed around as the semester dictates, but I’ve got a skeleton to work off of until June.  It just makes me feel good to know that I won’t have to start from scratch every week.  My department also enjoys all the work I save them when I share .  I’m also excited to begin teaching the class at my old college on Monday.  All of my copies are already made and sitting in my box waiting for me to pick them up!  I could have been playing on my new Wii all this time, but I got some work done instead.  Don’t get me wrong, I played also, but there was definitely time alotted for working.  Does anyone else feel the need to work over vacation?